Thread by @Battery_Changer

@futurebird I don't know how to do the threaded comment yet. So this is a bit of a longish reply.
Short answer, though. Drug addicts and the Homeless don't vote.
Cops both vote and cops also belong to Unions that contribute to political campaigns.

The same goes for the people who make the tanks and stuff for cops. They also provide jobs and board positions for politicians who retire or are voted out.
People want safety and vote for cops.
But large overtime needs to be explained

So basic Public Choice Theory, or even the radical Power Structure Dynamics (as I think it was called in the 1960s).
Would explain why Cops get overtime. A good source is Mancur Olson bit.ly/2FJ0Gsv who started as a left-wing democrat, but went on to suggest

something resembling a cooperative anarchist society.
But basically, Special Interests exert an outsized weight on policy decisions. So, since more overtime is better for Cops (they tend to use it at two points in their career, at the beginning when they are underpaid

and during their last years on the force, to boost their pension.) The total number of police officers is limited. And things like Baseball Game security is offered as overtime.

Which is why things like Drug legalization, open borders, and other things which both Libertarians and Socialists are resisted. Because Corrections Officer Unions, Private Prisons, and a large set of industries make a lot of money, contribute to campaigns of both

democrats and republicans.
Unfortunately, public choice theory tends to see the problem as intractable. You won't be allowed to choose people who will reverse this trend. Hence, the Democrats (despite the push for CJR) have offered to of the "toughest on crime"

candidates -- Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. I would also suggest C. Wright Mills.